POLICE CRACK CROSS-BORDER DRUG NETWORK

Tonnes Of Marijuana Allegedly Flowed South As Millions Of Dollars Came
North

TORONTO - Police say they dismantled a large organized crime group
that was flooding the U.S. with Canadian marijuana, after a
co-ordinated cross-border investigation sparked by a large seizure of
U.S. cash coming into Canada.

The marijuana and money laundering network allegedly moved tonnes of
tightly packed marijuana, grown in Ontario home-grow operations, to
cities throughout the Midwest and northeastern United States and then
repatriated the proceeds -- millions in U.S. cash -- back to Canada.

The case, if proven, is the strongest evidence yet Canada has become a
substantial source country for drugs for the U.S. market, and features
the unusual situation of criminal money flowing into, rather than
from, Canada.

"It started off with cash, that's what makes it different for us. It
was reverse engineering," said Chief Superintendent John MacLaughlan,
who heads the RCMP's criminal operations in Ontario.

"Normally you find drugs and then work through to the money. This is a
case of identifying a significant amount of currency that we suspect
to be illicit and to work to determine that a criminal organization is
involved in trafficking and transportation of marijuana and Ecstacy."

At the heart of the operation was a Vietnamese-led, Canadian-based
crew under the leadership of Trong Gia Nguyen, 46, of Mississauga,
police allege.

From his headquarters outside Toronto, Mr. Nguyen allegedly ran cells
in Detroit, Boston, Pittsburgh, and other cities in New Jersey,
Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Mississippi and California, U.S.
authorities said.

Hydroponic marijuana was supplied in bulk to the crew, who then hid it
in private passenger vehicles -- a rotating fleet of cars, SUVs and
minivans -- and had accomplices from the U.S. and Canada drive it
south, police said.

"These traffickers attempted to exploit the border between Detroit and
Windsor," said Jeffrey G. Collins, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of Michigan.

The flow of drugs south was matched almost shipment-by-shipment with
large quantities of cash coming north, again hidden in passenger
vehicles and driven across the Ambassador Bridge, through the
Detroit-Windsor tunnel and across the Sarnia Blue Water Bridge by
criminal accomplices, authorities said.

The crew has been in operation since August, 2002, according to a
grand jury indictment unsealed yesterday in Detroit.

Mr. Nguyen and his associates moved more than US$3-million in drug
proceeds into Canada, it alleges.

The case seems to have been sparked in the United States by the
discovery on Sept. 5, 2002, of a shipment of US$530,000, in the
possession of Banh Thi Nguyen, a 48-year-old Windsor woman who is
known as Mary.

The cash was destined for Canada, U.S. authorities said.

By June 19, 2003, when US$460,000 in cash was seized in the U.S.
enroute to Canada, the fourth such find, American officials realized
they had a substantial criminal network regularly exploiting weakness
in the Canada-U.S. border.

Canadian authorities, including the RCMP and Canada Border Services
Agency, were then brought into the investigation, called Project Oflow
in Canada and Project Lucky Mai in the U.S.

Authorities on both sides of the border then started picking off a
number of drug and money shipments over the past year, totalling
US$5-million in alleged drug money, 772 kilograms of marijuana and
3,000 tablets of Ecstacy.

Starting early yesterday, in a coordinated assault, searches were
conducted in Toronto, Windsor and Detroit.

In the Toronto area, 16 houses and businesses and 10 passenger
vehicles were searched; in the Windsor area, police rifled through
eight homes and businesses and seven passenger vehicles; in Detroit,
three searches were done.

Police laid 157 charges against 24 people, including 99 proceeds of
crime charges and 58 drug charges. Six large houses and 14 vehicles
were seized.

"We have laid charges against the alleged leaders, the cell heads, the
money and drug couriers and the drug distributors," said Inspector
Kevin Harrison of the London office of the RCMP's proceeds of crime
section.

"The combined efforts of many law enforcement agencies on both sides
of the border has effectively crushed this cross-border criminal
network," he said.

Some of the accused, including Mr. Nguyen, the alleged ringleader,
face charges in both Canada and the U.S.

"When a criminal organization has access to that kind of money, you
have to worry," said Chief Supt. MacLaughlan.

"There is only one common denominator at the end of the day, and it's
money. Not dope, not people, not stolen goods, but money. Eventually
everything comes down to money."